I’ve been doing lots of Christmas music with my two choirs this week. Last week it was “An Australian Bush Christmas”, with lots of Wheeler and James. You non-Australians have probably never heard of such Christmas classics as “The Three Drovers”, “The Silver Stars Are in the Sky”, and “Sing Gloria”, which is a shame because they really are lovely carols, and very Australian. And tomorrow it’s Handel’s Messiah, which I’ve decided to perform from memory, partly because this is my 7th year and it’s about time, and partly because I don’t know which box my score is in.
Christmas music is one of my favourite things about the season, but have you noticed that the songs are very frequently about Jebus? Funny that. And it’s giving this atheist a case of the screaming jeebies. I want to enjoy it for the music, but it’s hard to do when it means you’re affirming the existence of angels, resurrection, and salvation from non-existent punishment. It’s enough to drive you to reindeer.
I mean, the Messiah is gorgeous and so fun to perform. But I kind of grit my teeth during “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth”, and I feel the incongruity especially keenly during “Since By Man Came Death”, where the choir sings “E’en so, in Christ shall all be made alive.” And I realise that I’m somehow reifying a view I think is false.
I still love Christmas, and I hope that by celebrating it, I can contribute to its secularisation. But the religious nature of it is so entrenched in all that lovely musical tradition. I suppose I’ll eventually either relax about it and capitulate, or else stop performing it.
21 December 2008 at 12:44 am
Interesting. I LOVE gospel music, I listen to it all year round — and I don’t mean the happy clappy Hillsong type but old skool soul/country/blues variety. Apart from the sublime musical aspect (I listen constantly to the secular versions of those genres), there’s a humanity about it underneath the godbothering. Maybe Christmas music tends to be relentlessly exultant whereas the vernacular forms of gospel have a lot of room for the general difficulties of life. Even while they condemn me to hell I can’t help but sing along. 😉
22 December 2008 at 12:37 am
Yo,
I was at the Messiah concert last night. In as much as I actually like Baroque music (…) I enjoyed it a lot. And it looked like you enjoyed singing it too, despite the incongruity 🙂 So – Bravo!, or whatever it is the audience says to the choir. You guys sounded great. Merry Christmastime.
22 December 2008 at 1:03 am
Hey, thanks! Glad you could come.
I thought it was probably the best we’ve done Messiah. The choir felt really solid, and I managed to remember almost everything. Some years I find myself drifting off a bit, but this year almost everything was engaging to listen to. (What did you think of the counter-tenor?)
And I was having a good time. I’ll probably keep doing the music at Christmas. The religious edifice won’t magically collapse if I pull out, so I might as well enjoy it.
22 December 2008 at 7:10 am
Oh, the counter tenor! Less brilliant than the soprano, but somehow more beautiful. My Oma and I will die happy.
(He also had the best enunciation of the four. I couldn’t work out what the first guy was singing. ‘Come for tea, come for tea’, whaaat?)
22 December 2008 at 7:15 am
Oh, we like sheep!